Over Half A Century

An discipline-free record in 54 years of practice did not save an attorney from the imposition of a 30-day suspension  by the Ontario Law Society Tribunal Hearing Division 

• charged Clients A, B, C and D fees that were not reasonable; and

• failed to serve Clients C and D to the standard of a competent lawyer

The Law Society sought a suspension of three to six months in light of a prior caution letter

The respondent does not dispute that he failed to follow the advice in the Law Society’s caution letter. While Clients C and D retained the respondent before the caution letter, he continued work on their cases after the letter was issued to him. Clients A and B retained the respondent after the letter was issued. If he had followed the advice in the caution letter, these complaints might not have been made. Clearly the respondent’s disregard of the Law Society’s advice in 2018 weighs against him.

Impact

The Law Society argues that the respondent’s failure to serve his clients has had significant effects on their lives. It cites the victim impact statement of Client D, who was unable to emigrate from Afghanistan with his family. The inability to leave an unstable and dangerous country imposed significant psychological and economic costs on him and his family.

We agree that the victim impact statement sets out in clear detail the impacts of the respondent’s misconduct on a client living in precarious circumstances. However, it is also true that Client D was at times slow to follow the respondent’s directions. This was a partial cause of the failure of Client D’s application.

Sanction

A reprimand is not appropriate in this case, given the nature of the misconduct, its effect on multiple clients and the length of time that it went on. This is why we consider a suspension to be appropriate. The respondent’s remorse and commitment to avoid a recurrence of the misconduct justify the imposition of a suspension that is less than the length the Law Society seeks. For these reasons we determine that a one-month suspension is the appropriate penalty. The suspension should take effect 30 days after the release of these reasons.

(Mike Frisch)